bride of alucard
by rosie isis and rai the kitsune
Summary: slight crossovers, as in mentions of things from other animes. what would happen if alucard fell in love? who could possibly capture the heart of the no life king? read to find out.
1. prologue

**Hair the color of a vampire's eyes, she dreams of being the vampire king's bride. Eyes a glowing demonic shade of green, she sees the things that shouldn't be seen.**

"**With the Bird of the Hermes,**

**I share my wings."**

**,said the Shadow Princess**

**To the No Life King.**

**The full moon. To one young woman, it holds great significance, especially the blood moon. Under the moon's light, on a hill near the British village of Cheddar, we find this young woman sitting back and calmly watching the battle going on below as if it were a play being performed. She's especially paying attention to the man in the blood red hat and coat firing upon the army of ghouls, her demonic green eyes reflecting the light of the blood moon above her in the sky. In one hand is a piece of parchment, which she drops into her own shadow as the battle comes to an end. The parchment itself disappears completely. Where it reappears, only the woman knows for now. As the man in red leaves with a blonde woman in his arms, the woman on the hill stands, her hair catching on an eerie wind as she turns to leave herself, disappearing into the shadows of the forest behind her as completely as the parchment did into her own.**


	2. meet the bride

**CHAPTER 1: MEET THE BRIDE**

**The man in red, otherwise known as the vampire Alucard, enters his basement bedroom sometime later, after his new fledgling has awoken and they've returned from their latest assignment, to find someone already there. Not just in his room, but in his ****coffin! ****He's at first quite annoyed by this, but then he takes the time to study his sleeping guest. It's a young woman with long hair the color of his own eyes, wearing a jet black silk dress that's in a traditional Chinese style, right down to the delicate pair of jet silk fighter's slippers on the floor by his coffin. Then he notices that her breath smells of a rare kind of blood: the blood of a homunculus, and realizes that she's not just sleeping, she's been paralyzed temporarily. He decides to just let her sleep it off, though, figuring he can interrogate her when she's able to move again.**

**Sir Integra Hellsing walks into her office sometime the next morning to find a piece of parchment on her desk. Curious, she picks it up and starts to read it, only to begin shaking in anger about halfway through, before bellowing out, "ALUCARD!!!!"**

**Alucard immediately phases through the wall beside her, "You called, Master?"**

**Too angry to speak, Integra hands the parchment to him, which he then reads out loud:**

**Dear Sir Hellsing,**

**I write this to inform you that I must send my oldest daughter, Shadra, to live with you temporarily. She should arrive shortly before or after this letter, if she doesn't deliver it herself. She has taken a bit of a shine to your vampire, and I couldn't deny letting her see him again any longer, as she is of legal age. I assure you that she won't be a burden upon you or your household, as she is a fully trained fighter, and has developed her powers beyond my expectations, including control of several elements. Though I sometimes question her sanity, she is not to the point of being a berserker like her youngest sister.**

**Best of luck,**

**Itachi Kage**

**After reading the short letter, Alucard turns to Integra, "I don't exactly see the problem, Master Integra. If she's combat ready, she won't exactly be a burden to the organization, will she?"**

**Integra snarls, "Did you read the entire letter?! She's given her own father reason to question her sanity, which is saying something because he's been rumored to have killed almost his entire family single-handedly, and she's apparently smitten with you of all people."**

"**What exactly does this girl look like, Master?"**

"**Last time I saw her, she was about eight years old, with hair about the same color as your eyes and eyes a shade of green that gave even me chills. She always wore black, and swore she always would. Don't you remember the Kage sisters, Alucard? You were with me when I met them. I admit it was ten years ago, but surely you remember the little hellions who flocked around you like stray puppies."**

"**Ah. Now I remember. Shadra, Alicia, and Saturn. I'd heard that they were bitten at some point, but something about their physiology prevented them from becoming ghouls or turning fully into vampires themselves. And I do believe that Miss Shadra is already here."**

"**Well, where is she, Alucard?"**

"**She showed up in my room last night. Drank homunculus blood at some point and passed out in my coffin of all places. Thought I'd let her sleep it off, then see who she is and what she's doing here. She wouldn't have been able to answer for herself otherwise, and now I'm glad I didn't try to get the answers from her blood."**

"**Why is that?"**

"**The Kage family is notorious for having electricity running through their bloodstream. It would've been like biting into a bug zapper."**

**Integra starts to pinch the bridge of her nose in irritation before standing up without another word and walking out of the room with Alucard falling into step behind her as she heads for the basement, specifically Alucard's room, to see if their new guest is awake yet.**

* * *

i just love the bug zapper analogy. it shows up quite frequently in my stories pertaining the the shadow or kage family. the two are actually the same family, just with the last name translated between Japanese and English.

oh, and i won't post anymore chapters until i get at least one review on what i've got posted.


	3. the bride in badrick

just as an fyi, i have very little knowledge of other languages, so i really just picked a random language for the spells. hope you like, because i'm expecting at least one new review before i post the next chapter. i like hearing what people think about the story. oh, and if i'm going to be able to post another chapter of psycho truth or dare, i'm going to need a few reviews that actually contain questions or dares for the characters.

thanks to my one reviewer for the advice on my formatting.

CHAPTER 2: THE BRIDE IN BADRICK

Shadra is indeed awake when Integra enters Alucard's bedroom, sitting on the side of the coffin putting her shoes on as if she's not doing anything unusual, which for her, it isn't. When the door opens, she turns her eerie green eyes to look at who's coming in, her gaze going past Integra and straight to Alucard's sunglasses covered gaze. Integra sees this and sighs a little before saying, "Shadra, right? It's been a while since we last saw each other."

Shadra nods in agreement with Integra, still looking at Alucard when she answers, "Ten years, I believe. I don't suppose Papa actually sent any of the letters I asked him to, though."

Integra blushes at the mention of the letters. Itachi had indeed mailed them, but as they were all addressed to Alucard, she hadn't opened them. She hadn't even thought to give them to him. Alucard raises an eyebrow at the sight of Integra's blush, **"What letters is she talking about? Were they perhaps for me?"**

Before anything else can be said, one of Integra's employees comes in with a report of a vampire in Badrick, Ireland. Integra immediately has Alucard get "Police Girl" and head out to the site. Shadra insists on going with them, promising not to get in the way and help as much as she can. She's not all that thrilled when she sees that "Police Girl" is the woman she saw Alucard carry out of Cheddar, but she doesn't say anything about it as they move out.

On the way to Badrick, "Police Girl" suggests that Shadra stay out of the building, as she apparently has no weapons with her. In answer to this, Shadra sticks her hand into a shadow beside her and pulls out a bow and quiver of arrows. Alucard whistles a little when he sees that the weapons are inscribed with archaic runes, mostly endurance spells on the arrows, but near the head of each arrow is the rune for hellfire. The bow has the rune for fear inscribed in several places.

About an hour later, the three of them are inside a building near Badrick, systematically destroying the ghouls with ease. Shadra takes out three ghouls with each arrow, turning each one to ash almost as soon as the head makes contact. She's sitting beside Alucard, taking a break and watching "Police Girl" take out the last of the ghouls, when she hears the sound of fighting from upstairs. She's about to voice this to Alucard when a ghoul lands between them, though she simply takes an arrow and hits the ghoul with it before it can do anything, while Alucard admonishes his fledgling to aim for either the heart or head when killing ghouls. She feels the breeze as something passes between them just before a bayonet stabs the fledgling vampire through the neck. Both she and Alucard scramble to their feet as a volley of bayonets follows the first one, stabbing her through the torso. Shadra, feeling that she will need the element of surprise when she realizes that the bayonets have been blessed, flickers into invisibility and has a shadow swallow up her weapons. She quickly speaks to Alucard telepathically "I think this might be someone from Iscariot. He probably doesn't know that I'm with Hellsing yet, so I can surprise him with an arrow in the back if you need me."

Alucard smirks at this, heading over to his fledgling to try and remove the bayonets from her back. Shadra helps him until they hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and Alucard is quick to look that way as he hears Shadra pulling something out from somewhere on her body, nearly laughing when she says, "It's a silver dagger I keep sheathed on the back of my neck. Keep you head out of the gutter, cutie."

The priest from Iscariot reaches the bottom of the stairs, holding a blood-drenched bayonet in each hand as he and Alucard start talking and walking towards each other. When Shadra hears that the priest is none other than Father Alexander Anderson, the Paladin, she nearly stumbles backwards. Even the Kage family is wary of the regenerator, since Iscariot can't tell the difference between partial and full-fledged vampires. Alucard hears the small intake of breath from Shadra and whispers into her mind, "Don't worry, Princess, he won't be able to hurt you as long as I'm nearby." ,just before Anderson attacks him, earning bullets to the head from Alucard's Caswell before he goes back over to his fledgling to try and remove more of the bayonets from her back. Shadra positions herself silently between Alucard and the body of the priest, knowing that he's a regenerator. Sure enough, just as Alucard is about to reach for one of the bayonets, Anderson comes up behind him and tries to stab him in the back with two of the blessed blades. The attack goes through the invisible Shadra instead, though the ends of the blades go into Alucard's back just as Shadra becomes visible again and lets out a shriek of pain that shatters the windows nearby, as well as both Anderson's glasses and Alucard's sunglasses. Alucard is quick to pull off of the blades and pull Shadra free of them as well before emptying several more rounds into Anderson.

As Shadra lays on the ground next to the woman she sees as her rival for Alucard's undead heart, the sounds of the battle continue around her. She almost desperately opens a shadow near her hand, large enough to put half of her arm into, and grasps hold of a "leather" bag floating in the shadow world, pulling it free of the shadows with an almost nonexistent clink of crystal pieces hitting each other. She whispers into the other woman's mind then, "I can't get the bag open myself. It was all I could do to get it out of the shadows. Get out one of the black bottles marked with the letter P for me, will you? The contents will help to speed my healing so I can move again when the time comes." The fledgling quickly does as she's asked, noticing that there are several different colors, and the black bottles are all inscribed with an initial. She grabs the first one she finds with the initial P on it and helps Shadra drink the contents. The red liquid smells of blood, but a kind that the fledgling can't place. Almost as soon as the bottle has been emptied into Shadra's body, her wounds begin to visibly heal, and she's soon able to sit up on her own, looking more annoyed at the damage to her clothes than the wounds she received as she takes the bottle from the fledgling and puts it back into the bag, then returns the bag into the shadow world. They turn towards the fight just in time to see Alucard pinned to a window by a volley of Anderson's bayonets, but they're unable to move in time to save Alucard from a decapitation.

Shadra's green eyes turn the same shade of red as her hair in her anger as she gets to her feet with a growl of hatred directed at Anderson, "Seras, get your master's head and run for it. I'm going to have a few words with the human." The fledgling quickly moves to do as she's told when she faintly smells ozone radiating from the seething red head beside her.

Once Seras is out of sight, trying to find an exit with Alucard's head in her arms, Shadra walks towards Anderson in much the same way Alucard did just before the battle, only instead of trading insults with the priest, she's reciting a spell in Latin:

_I call upon Prince Abadon,_

_I have need of thee,_

_Who are brother to the shadow three._

_Grant me the powers of the Shadow of Nobility._

_Let my enemy feel her electricity!_

_Hear me, fallen archangel,_

_Grant your daughter her desire._

_Let my enemy be engulfed,_

_In the jet black_

_HELLFIRE!_

With her last words, Shadra's left hand is covered in electrical sparks, while her entire right arm is engulfed in jet black flames. At the same time, her eyes change to match the colors of the elements she's using. She then takes off running towards Anderson, punching him in the gut with her electrified left hand, then in the face with the flaming right. The flames from her right hand quickly begin to engulf Anderson's body as the two elements fade from around Shadra, her eyes returning to their natural eerie green color as she stalks over to Alucard's body and removes the bayonets from it. She smiles with a psychotic twinkle to her eyes when she hears the sound of bats coming towards the building, turning to walk in the direction that Seras took, only to find that Anderson has already gone after her. She quickly takes off to try and catch up to them, stopping a bit away from the scene that she comes upon when she sees that Integra is present. Anderson is still burned from the flames she used on him, but the burns are visibly healing as he attacks Integra.

They all turn to look towards a nearby window when a flock of bats come in and Alucard reforms with his Caswell aimed at Anderson and his face stretched into his trademark insane smirk.__


	4. shared dreams

i know i said i wouldn't post until i got another review, but i decided to cut the suspence and give you guys another chapter or two. ^.^

CHAPTER 3: SHARED DREAMS

When they return to Hellsing HQ, Shadra heads to Alucard's room as if claiming it for her own. In fact, when she reaches the basement bedroom, she once again retrieves her bag of blood bottles and sets it on the table next to Alucard's dinner before sitting on the edge of his coffin and bending to take her shoes off again. Alucard eyes the bag as he comes in, saying, "Dragon skin, huh?"

Shadra smiles, "Yep. In fact, it was given to me willingly by the dragon himself. The bag, along with the special crystal that makes up the bottles, keeps the blood from going bad."

"Like that bottle of blood you had my fledgling help you drink back there? Why homunculus blood? I thought it only paralyzed."

"You've only encountered Wrath's blood, then. Like the homunculi themselves, each one's blood has a different effect. Pride's promotes healing. Lust's is a sleeping agent. Gluttony's drains the victim of energy, while Greed's boosts the drinker's energy. Sloth's stops the effects of the others, and acts as normal blood otherwise. As for Envy's, I've only used it once, and apparently, it gives you a god-complex that you don't remember when it wears off. I haven't used it since I woke up from it and found out I'd leveled a whole village, and left only one survivor…."

"So yesterday, you were under the influence of Lust's blood when I found you asleep in my coffin?"

"I've been using it to help me sleep since waking up from Envy's blood. Otherwise, the nightmares are too much for me."

At this point, Shadra turns to look Alucard in the eye, "Back there, you called me 'Princess'. How did you know that the shadows call me that, Alucard?"

"They told me. How is it that one as young as you could gain the title of Shadow Princess? I'd thought it was only given to the children of Lucifer."

"Did you ever wonder what happened to my birth mother? Papa caught her trying to sacrifice me when I was three and killed her, but not before she branded me with this." She moves the collar of her dress to show him the crown branded onto the right side of her neck, "Lucifer's Crown. Since the ritual wasn't completed, I'm only an honorary princess, but the shadows here acknowledge me as a daughter of the fallen archangel."

"Mind if I ask why you seem set on sleeping in my room?"

"A legend Prince Abadon once told me. It's a pretty short legend, but I'm the only princess it fits.

Hair the color of a vampire's eyes, she dreams of being the vampire king's bride. Eyes a glowing demonic shade of green, she sees the things that shouldn't be seen.

"With the Bird of the Hermes,

I share my wings."

,said the Shadow Princess

To the No Life King.

That's the legend that Abadon told me mere hours before I first met you and Integra. Do you see why I've taken to you so quickly?"

"A quaint little legend about who is supposed to become my bride, huh? Well, you certainly fit the description given in the beginning, but what about that last part?"

As an answer, a pair of black dragon wings sprout from Shadra's shoulder blades, then shrink down to half of their original size. At the same time the wings are shrinking, one of the binding circles fades from Alucard's gloves. Doing this, however, fatigues Shadra to the point where her wings disappear completely and she pitches forward into Alucard's arms, asleep before he has a hold of her completely. With a sigh, Alucard tucks her into his coffin and goes to drink his blood pack.

Within a few minutes of Alucard tucking her in, though, Shadra's body starts to shake violently, accompanied by wolf-like growls from her throat. Alucard decides to see what she's dreaming about and enters her mind.

Within the dream, Shadra is thirteen, standing in the center of what once was a desert village, now blood splattered ruins. She turns her head towards Alucard, and shows that her eyes are homunculus purple. She's been taken over by the homunculus whose blood she drank, Envy. Over to one side comes the sound of crying just as her eyes fade back to green and widen upon seeing the destruction around her. She rushes over to the ruined building the crying is coming from and pulls out an eight year old girl, her raven black hair matted with blood as her chocolate brown eyes widen in fear of Shadra. The girl struggles as best as she can in Shadra's arms, terrified of the girl who just destroyed her home. Shadra tries to calm her down, whispering soothingly to the young girl as she stands with her in her arms and quickly goes to try and find her sisters. Alicia has the best healing abilities of the three sisters, but by the time Shadra finds her sisters, the girl has fallen into a coma from terror and blood loss. Saturn is able to keep the girl from dying while Alicia heals her, but something about the power Saturn uses won't allow the girl to wake up….

The scene changes to a few nights before Shadra's eighteenth birthday. Shadra is sitting in a chair beside a princess bed. In the bed is the eight year old she rescued from her own rampage. She hasn't aged a day since then, or woken up. The only way you would know that any time has passed for her would be that her raven hair is much longer than it was before. Shadra has made it her responsibility to look after the girl for the last five years. Now Alicia will be taking over until they find a way to wake her up or Shadra has found her mate. Shadra remembers the legend that Abadon told her when she was the same age as the little girl before her, and remembers clearly the feelings she's felt for the vampire named Alucard since she first laid eyes on him.

Shadra bolts awake at this point, forcing Alucard from her dream world. She's breathing heavily and reaching almost blindly towards the dragon skin bag on the table, nearly falling over the side of Alucard's coffin before he wraps his arms around her and holds her to him. She doesn't even realize that she's crying blood tears until a few minutes later.


	5. shadows, sorrows, and sins

CHAPTER 4: SHADOWS, SORROWS, AND SINS

That day, Alucard sleeps with Shadra in his arms after giving her a bottle of Lust's blood to help her sleep once she calms down from her nightmare. It's not until the next night that he even notices that one of his seals has disappeared, but he's not about to mention it in front of Integra.

For the next few days, Shadra trains a bit with the soldiers, using her arrows and silver senbon instead of bullets in the firing range. When Integra asks her why she prefers to use such archaic weapons, Shadra replies with, "It just feels right for me to use my bow and senbon. I've never been too good with a gun. In fact, it's practically unheard of for a Kage to use guns. Our hearing is so sensitive that the report would deafen us for several hours if we used one ourselves. The hearing thing is also part of the reason why we don't raise our voices too often. You saw what a shriek of pain from me did in Badrick, right? Papa says one of our ancestors was a Valkyrie, and that the high pitch of our screams proves it."

Integra has no idea what she's talking about, having assumed that the building's windows were blown out by gunfire, but she doesn't say this, instead asking, "If none of your family uses guns, do they all use a bow like you?"

"Oh, no. Papa uses mostly weapons like senbon and kunai. Alicia has a special scythe that works with the electricity in our bloodstream, and Saturn uses a scimitar she was given by the leader of a village as a prize for beating him in a sparring match. Saturn's special element is fire, but the scimitar uses ice. When she uses both elements, she calls it her hi-aisu combo. It fits in more than one way, because the scimitar is called Aisu Shikage."

Alucard shows up at this point, and whistles appreciatively at the name of the blade, "That's Japanese for 'ice death shadow' I believe."

Shadra nods, "Yes, but the way it's supposed to be said is 'icy shadow of death'."

Integra notices that Shadra seems to have forgotten her with Alucard's arrival, but doesn't mind because her temporary houseguest seems more animated around the nosferatu than she is around humans.

Let's skip ahead to the day the Council of Twelve meets, shall we? Shadra is working with the shadows in Seras's room while Walter gives Alucard and Seras their new weapons when the mansion is shaken by an explosion of some kind. Walter is soon after contacted by Integra from the council room, and he and Seras head for the third floor through the vents, while Alucard decides to wait for his prey in the basement. Shadra of course stays with Alucard, sitting in a chair made of solidified shadows next to his throne like chair with a table containing a bottle of wine and two filled glasses, though her glass contains blood from one of her black bottles.

When the vampire, Luke Valentine, finally reaches them, Alucard's wine is almost gone, but Shadra hasn't even taken a sip of her blood, having told Alucard beforehand that it's Wrath's blood in the glass, and asking him to let her "play" with Luke for a little while before Alucard has his fun. Alucard laughs a bit when she asks him in front of Luke, saying, "Of course, Princess. Take your time."

While Luke is trying to figure out what they're talking about, Shadra stands up and walks over to him, waving the glass of blood under his nose until he can't stand it anymore and grabs the glass from her, gulping down the entire wineglass full of blood before it starts to take effect, and he falls to the floor in a state of total paralysis. She laughs at this, the sound almost matching Alucard's own insane sound as she says, "It looks like he was too young to realize that it was homunculus blood, eh, Prince?"

Alucard raises an eyebrow at her nickname for him, "Better have your fun with him before the blood wears off, Shadra. When he's able to move again, it's my turn."

"Okay, Alucard. I'm just gonna mess with his head for a little while. By the way, did I ever tell you how I met the homunculi? I'm gonna show this poor sap some of the things that happened to someone who's connected to them, so do you want to hear the story?"

"Sure. Why not?"

She smiles, touching a fingertip to Luke's forehead as she begins her story:

FLASHBACK

~The country of Armestris, approximately eight years previous~

"Hurry Papa! We're gonna miss your meeting with Colonel Mustang!"

"Yeah Papa, let's get going!"

"I don't wanna miss the chance to meet Fullmetal's new subordinate! I hear she's even younger then Ed was when he joined the military!"

"All right girls! Calm down. We're not going to miss our chance to meet Chameleon. She's here with Ed, and he's been detained for the next couple of days."

Itachi Kage and his ten year old triplet daughters are heading for Central headquarters because he's been called in to meet with the Flame Alchemist on an important matter. His daughters never miss a chance to see Edward Elric and his younger brother, Alphonse, so they were very excited when they found out that Ed was assigned to look after one of the newest State Alchemists.

Alicia runs on ahead of the others when they reach Headquarters, with Shadra and Saturn not far behind her. Because of her ability to sense fluctuations in the electricity around her, Alicia is the best of the sisters at tracking down the Elric brothers. Before they reach the brothers, though, an eight year old girl comes running down the hall towards them, followed closely by a boy their age, who calls after the girl, "Rosa! Get back here! Uncle Roy wanted us to meet the Kage family with him and Ed, remember? Ed will be mad if we're not there when they get here!"

The girl, Rosa, calls back, "But Big Brother! I'm sensing someone nearby who's like me! I just want to make sure he hasn't come back again!"

"Little Sister! You're being paranoid! You and I both know we ashed him back in Resembool last year!"

Shadra catches hold of Rosa's arm as she passes them, saying, "Ashed who? A vampire?"

Rosa stops dead when she asks this, saying quietly, "How did you know?"

Saturn answers, "We had to ash one a few years back."

Alicia adds, "Of course, she was almost there already from biting us. Biting a Kage is like sinking your fangs into a bug zapper, apparently."

Rosa's ears almost visibly perk up at hearing their last name, "You're the Kage family? I thought there were four of you coming today."

Shadra smirks as she lets go of Rosa, "Papa's around here somewhere. He hasn't been able to keep up with us since we got these…."

At this point, all three Kage sisters hold the collars of their respective tops away from the left side of their neck, showing almost identical sets of scars from having been bitten by a vampire. Rosa's eyes widen before she takes off both her red coat and long sleeved black half-jacket to reveal a more brutal looking version of the sisters' scars, hers extending over her right shoulder and halfway around her throat. As if on cue, Ed comes around the corner that Rosa and her brother came from then, calling, "Rosa! Thorn! There you two are! Your sisters were looking everywhere for you. I had to threaten to transmute them back into their kitten form and hand them over to Al to keep them from running all over headquarters."

Rosa and her brother, Thorn, look sheepish at this and say in unison, "Sorry, Ed. We just had a bit of a false alarm is all."

Ed notices then that Rosa has stripped down to her black tank top, pants, boots, and white gloves, "any reason you took two of your tops off, Chameleon?"

Rosa grins sheepishly again as the Kage sisters look between Ed and Rosa, noticing the almost disturbing similarities in their style of clothing. Thorn seems used to this, wearing a similar outfit himself. After a moment, Ed notices the sisters, and that they have their collars open, showing their own bite scars, and gets the picture, "Oh, I see. Comparing scars with the squirt patrol, huh?"

This statement causes all three sisters to have annoyed tics in their left eye, before Shadra says, "You're not much taller than we are, Fullmetal."

At this, Rosa and Thorn sweat drop and step back, while Alicia and Saturn scoot away from their sister, just before Ed goes ballistic and takes off down the hall after a laughing Shadra.

The two remaining triplets just shake their heads, muttering in unison, "Happens every time."

After another moment or two, Rosa puts her coat and jacket back on, saying to Thorn, "Come on, Big Brother. We should get back before Uncle Roy comes after us, too. I really don't want to stare down Auntie Riza's gun again if we're late for no reason."

Now it's Alicia and Saturn's turn to sweat drop, following after the newest State Alchemist and her older brother. When they arrive at Colonel Mustang's office, their father is already there, along with Al and five seven year old girls wearing outfits identical to Rosa's. Said seven year olds flock around their older siblings as soon as they're noticed.

Ed and Shadra soon join the group, Ed holding Shadra up by the back of her dress and handing her to Itachi, saying, "Here. She was mouthing off again."

Shadra mutters something that sounds like, "Shorty was calling us the squirt patrol again." and sets Ed off all over again. She ignores his ranting this time, though, in favor of saying quite loudly, "How on Earth do you tell your sisters apart, Rosa? They all look exactly the same from here!"

Shadra's sisters face palm at her statement, having already noticed this but been too polite to ask. Rosa and Thorn laugh a little when their sisters answer with, "The streaks in our hair are all different. DUH!"

Roy Mustang cuts in then, "As I was saying before the kids got here with Fullmetal and Chameleon, there's been a bit of a problem with artificially created humans, better known as homunculi, lately. They seem to be targeting our two youngest Alchemists here. By the way, Itachi, I'd like to introduce you to the person who beat Fullmetal's record, Rosa Ishva, the Chameleon Alchemist, and her siblings."

At the very mention of homunculi, the Kage family notices that Thorn and the younger Ishva children edge a bit behind Rosa as if for protection. Rosa blushes a bit at the mention of her having beat Ed's record, muttering something about Fuehrer King Bradley endorsing her himself for the exams when she asked him about them.

It's a few days later when the triplets are playing on the outskirts of Central with the Ishvas that Thorn slips up and reveals his true form as the homunculus named Wrath. Rosa swears the girls to secrecy about her big brother's true identity, adding that King Bradley himself is actually "Uncle" Pride.

END FLASHBACK

As Luke's paralysis begins to wear off, Shadra finishes her story with, "From there, we met Sloth and the others through Rosa's connection to them. Rosa considered the sins to be a surrogate family of sorts because she was abandoned by her entire village when she was five because of her 'condition'. It was actually Rosa who first supplied us with the sins' blood to aid with hunting down the rogues in our country, and in exchange, we provided her with part of our own supply of blood that we keep to drink for ourselves. Of course, since then, it's been rather hard to get the sins' blood because most of them were wiped out in the war. We later found out that Rosa's sisters are homunculi as well, and their blood has effects similar to the fallen sins'. Rosa herself fused some of Wrath's DNA into her own using alchemy in order to be closer to the sins, and as a result has a faded version of the homunculus' Orborus tattoo on her left temple."

By this time, Luke has recovered from his paralysis, so Shadra fades into the shadows to let Alucard have his fun, though Luke is visibly shaken by whatever images Shadra put in his brain.

(I'm just gonna skip the battle between Luke and Alucard. Suffice it to say that Shadra is rolling on the floor for several minutes laughing at Alucard's "dog shit" line.)

As Alucard's form fades back to normal, he asks, "May I ask what the State Alchemists' second names mean? It seems that they all have one."

"Let's see….Roy Mustang is called the Flame Alchemist because he uses gloves made of a special ignition cloth that causes a spark when he snaps his fingers, then he uses alchemy to manipulate the oxygen content in the air around the spark to cause a burst of flames wherever he wants it. Edward Elric is the Fullmetal Alchemist because his biggest advantage is that he can reshape his automail arm, and I guess it's also partly because for a while Alphonse's soul was attached to a suit of armor by Ed. As for Rosa, her full title is Lightning Chameleon Alchemist, because she specializes in reshaping her own body, much like the homunculus named Envy, and since she doesn't need an alchemic circle or even to clap her hands like Ed, she can do it as quickly as lightning. She can even make herself look and sound like a different species."

"About the homunculi….do Rosa and her sisters have names like the sins? And did she think of all the sins besides Wrath as aunts and uncles, like you mentioned she did Pride?"

"Yeah. Rosa herself took a homunculus name. As a whole, the younger Ishva girls call themselves the sorrows, and in order by age, their names are Fear, Hatred, Rage, Desertion, and Vengance. The youngest two are actually twins. Rosa created her sisters with Wrath's help before she ever even went to Pride to ask about taking the exams. As for the sins, Pride was the only one she called 'Uncle'. Lust and Sloth were 'Auntie', Gluttony, Greed, and Envy were 'Cousin', and, as I've said, Wrath is 'Big Brother'."

* * *

rosa and the elric brothers may show up in later chapters, depending on the feedback i get for the fma story i'll post soon. rosa's vampirism slightly operates on the anne rice principle of a new vampire being created when someone is drained to the point of death and then given the vampire's blood. is she and the elrics show up, it will be as vampires helping hellsing, and explained then.


	6. museum amusement

CHAPTER 5: MUSEUM AMUSEMENT

After the incident with the Valentine brothers, Walter calls in a group of mercenaries called the Wild Geese. Shadra watches Alucard's entrance and introduction from the doorway, smiling a little and whistling a small tune (which sounds suspiciously like the theme to Harry Potter) as if this sort of thing occurs every night. She looks over Integra's shoulder at the sender of the letter that Walter hands to her, her tune faltering a little when she sees that it's from Iscariot, causing Alucard to glance over at her, "Something the matter, Princess?"

Shadra giggles a little at Integra's raised eyebrow at the nickname, but Alucard nearly falls over laughing at his master's expression when she replies with, "It's a letter from the bedwetters in Rome, Prince."

Of course, both Shadra and Alucard accompany Integra and Walter to the Imperial War Museum when they go to meet with Enrico Maxwell of Iscariot. Shadra awaits any trouble standing next to Integra, fully invisible, as they wait for the man who asked for the meeting. When he arrives late, and insults Integra, Shadra becomes visible and steps aside for Alucard with a smirk at Maxwell's surprise.

When Maxwell calls out Anderson, however, her smirk turns to a look of anger at the priest. She still hasn't let go of the fact that he beheaded her Alucard in Badrick. When Anderson starts to get too close to Alucard for her comfort, Shadra makes a small show of power by reciting a spell in Latin loud enough for the Iscariot leader to hear her

_Grant me the powers of the Shadow of Time,_

_And bring the Blood Shadow's power forth._

_Jet black flames and eternal ice,_

_And my own glittering diamond Earth._

As she finishes reciting the spell, Shadra's right arm is engulfed again in jet black hellfire, her left in ice, and a cloud of glittering jet black sand appears swirling of its own accord around her ankles. She smirks again when she sees Anderson hesitate at the sight of the flames, saying so quietly her voice is almost a whisper, "Wary of a second run-in with hellfire are we, Paladin? Although, last time it was compounded with lightning instead of ice. Think of how painful the regeneration would be this time, encased partly in ice that doesn't melt, the rest burned by fires that only go out if the wielder wishes them to….I let you off easy in Badrick."

After another moment, she lets the fire and ice fade from her arms, though, saying, "Of course, this is not the place for that. There are innocent humans here. Even considering who my second father is, I value life…."

Alucard smirks, "Good work, Princess. You nearly made the Judas priest piss himself. I wish I'd been able to see what you did in Badrick."

"I'll tone down the voltage if you wanna take it from my blood, Prince."

"I'd love a taste of your blood, Princess, but maybe a little later. We do share a room after all."

Shadra's resulting giggle earns her some odd looks from the humans, and a small eyebrow wiggle from Alucard, making her blush a little. Even Anderson's jaw drops when Alucard's next action is to wrap an arm around the red head's waist, saying out loud, "Why don't we go ahead and go back to bed, Shadra?"

Shadra smiles up at her vampire, "Of course, Alucard."

Then they both walk away from the group of humans hastily trying to pick their jaws up off of the floor, but neither one actually leaves. They simply use Shadra's power to turn invisible and listen in on Integra and Maxwell's conversation in the cafeteria outside.

* * *

first of all, i have no idea why i chose the theme to Harry Potter for Shadra to whistle, but it just seems appropriate to me. the bedwetter line still makes me crack up. despite the conversation near the end, the fact that the soon-to-be couple shares a coffin is still platonic. they're not that close yet.


	7. south american shadow

CHAPTER 6: SOUTH AMERICAN SHADOW

After the museum, Shadra stays close to Alucard at all times, a silent acknowledgement that she's still slightly leery of the Paladin, despite her show of power. The only time she's not with the older vampire is when she's helping his fledgling train the Wild Geese on the firing range. The leader, Pip Bernadette, allows her to select a few of his men to train with her selected weapons, including throwing knives.

She can feel Alucard watching her from the mansion, hear him and Walter having their discussion about the latest mission. When she hears them discussing how to get Seras to South America when she's too young to cross running water, she asks Alucard, "Could I go in her place? She's not exactly getting along with the Geese right now, so it would be a lot quieter…."

She can practically feel Alucard's resulting smile, "Jealous, Princess?"

The question makes her blush enough that the soldiers she's training look at her oddly, resulting in Alucard laughing in her mind, "I'll take that as a yes."

In the end, though, he and Walter agree with her idea, especially when she points out that it would be one less coffin to transport, since she insists on sharing Alucard's. This fact seems to amuse Pip to no end when he finds out, saying something about Alucard being a sly dog before his laughter is quelled by identical looks of annoyance from his two companions on the plane to Rio.

Shadra walks into the Hotel Rio on Alucard's arm, trying not to blush happily at her current position. She giggles a little at Pip's reaction to Alucard's use of hypnosis on the desk clerk when he starts to protest their having such large "personal belongings" brought up to their suite. She cracks up completely at his reaction to the suite and Alucard's coffin, not even noticing her smaller inscription under the original one. What she wrote was the tail end of the legend, though the fact that she wrote it in a different language may be why Pip didn't realize it was different from what was written in English.

Shadra waits until Pip is gone to speak, "Humans can be totally oblivious, can't they?"

"Yes, Shadra, they can. But right now, it's humans who are coming up against us. Do you want to leave the first wave to me?"

"They've already identified us both from what I'm hearing outside. I think I'll watch until they get here. It's been awhile since I ripped something apart, though. I'd rather help with the first wave, end it with twice the screaming."

Alucard laughs a little, "So be it. You can come up behind them, in that case. It'll make them piss themselves, I bet."

Shadra grins at the idea of making pathetic beings piss themselves, then the two of them take up their chosen positions to wait for the first wave of humans.

They don't have to wait long, the door to their suite busting open just minutes later. The two of them allow the humans to explore a little, until they find the coffin, then both of them come up behind them, saying together, "Don't touch our coffin."

The humans whirl around, "FREEZE!"

"Don't touch our coffin. Get away from our coffin."

"FIRE!"

Shadra quickly sinks into the shadows to avoid the gunfire, but Alucard allows them to hit him, tearing him up until they run out of bullets. Then she reappears by the door that leads out of the suite, guarding it while the stupid humans watch Alucard regenerate himself with looks of shock and horror that make her want to laugh, before joining her vampire in the slaughter. Only one man escapes them, and only because he blows his own brains out before they can reach him by the door, much to the annoyance of both of them. While Shadra goes around the bloodstained suite, making gems from the blood, Alucard calls Integra to reaffirm her orders. She speaks with him when the phone is answered.

"Who is this? Friend? Foe?"

"It's your servants, Integra. Orders….give us your orders. Our master."

"Explain the situation."

"As you no doubt know, immediately following our arrival at the hotel we were besieged. Their reach extends further than we thought. Our moves are being read. A specialized police unit attempted an infiltration just now."

"So…what happened?"

"We killed them. We exterminated them. Down to the last man. Now, Integra, give us your orders. The higher-ups of the police force are probably controlled by them. However the ones who were just following their orders to break in here….the ones we killed and will try to kill again, are just typical ignorant humans. We can kill them. We can massacre them without even a bit of hesitation, an ounce of regret. Because we are monsters. Now, regarding you. Miss Integra."

After this, Alucard speaks alone, "I will wield the gun. I will also determine its aim. I will put the ammo in the magazine, pull the slide, and even undo the safety. But what will kill them is your intent. So, what are our orders?! Hellsing Director Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing?!"

There's a moment's pause, then Integra's voice booms through the phone, "Do not toy with me, soldiers!! I've given you your orders! Nothing has changed!! Search and destroy!! Search and destroy!! Any force which hinders us is to be crushed underfoot!! Do not run or hide, but go and attack them head-on!! All obstacles are to be reduced to dust and ash!!"

The orders are met with delighted laughter from both the vampire and the one who may very well have finally won his undead heart, "The final veil removed! How splendid! In that case, we're going out hunting. Watch closely. Sir Hellsing."

After hanging up the phone, Alucard turns to look at the woman he now thinks of as his, finding her jet silk fighter's slippers now encrusted with rubies crystallized from the blood of the humans they slaughtered. He whistles a bit in appreciation before saying, "We need some way to get the coffin to the roof."

Shadra snaps her fingers, and several shadows materialize into humanoid warriors. The shadow warriors then securely wrap the coffin and use other shadows to disappear with it as Shadra says with a smile, "Let's check out, Prince. I can hear the next wave lining up outside."

"Yes. We'll walk out the front door. And teach our watchers a little lesson. They need to see with whom they've just picked a fight."

They share a psychotic smile, then head out the front door of the suite together, walking through the second team of police officers lining the hall as if they're not there, until one of the humans panics and starts to empty a clip into Alucard. Shadra ducks out of the way of Alucard's Caswell and Jackal as he systematically kills the soldiers around them. She gleefully crystallizes the blood as she follows him to the elevator, adding the gems to the soles of her slippers. When they step into the elevator, Alucard allows her to tear the soldiers apart with her dagger, the blood on the blade crystallizing between bodies, which she then gives to Alucard as they step out on the ground floor, saying with a smile, "A prince should have gems just as much as a princess should."

As they walk across the lobby towards the doors, Alucard secures the rubies to his favorite coat. They stop partway, though, when they sense more humans trying to hide in the shadows.

Half of the humans are thrown through the front door and into the air, landing bodily on the flag poles outside. The other half are dropped onto the remaining poles out of shadow portals with sickening squelching sounds as the couple walks out of the building. They stop side-by-side just outside the shattered door, smirking a moment before standing with their arms crossed, each hand holding a weapon as they speak loudly, "Now. Come on out. We've had quite our fill of the smorgasbord. Or will we have to fill this place with the dead?"

They watch as a man comes forward through the police barricade wearing a white hat and suit, "Goodness me, wasn't that a magnificent meal! But, after all! After all, you are the much renowned Alucard!! But, who is your lady friend? We have almost no information on her from the Valentine brothers….other than that you have pet names for each other."

Shadra smirks at this, "The name is Shadra Kage. You won't have any data on me from those idiots. Everything I did to the older brother was psychological, other than the temporary paralysis."

The man nods is acknowledgement, "My name is Tubalcain Alhambra. By those close to me, I am known as The Dandy."

The couple speaks together, gesturing towards the humans impaled on the flagpoles, "Are you the one who sent in that pitiful bunch?"

"Those poor souls, you mean? They are there because their foolish superiors wanted it badly enough to sacrifice all their own men. Eternal life, that is."

Shadra snickers a little as Alucard answers, "They're fools beyond redemption. In this world, eternity doesn't even exist."

"Even this wretched group proved useful to me, just a little. How many of those special bullets you're so proud of are left, Alucard?"

"Enough boasting. What happens now, Dandy?"

"Now we take your life. The time has come for you to be enumerated as nothing more than one of our insignificant samples. One of Millennium's."

Shadra starts to grow annoyed at being ignored by the other man. As Tubalcain and Alucard start fighting, she starts to speak in Latin.

_Bring forth the powers of the Shadow of Blood,_

_A cloud of shadow diamond to stop my enemy for good._

A glittering cloud of black sand kicks up around Shadra's ankles as the two combatants run up the side of the hotel to the roof. She follows quickly after Alhambra with the sand shooting up in her wake as the rubies on the soles of her slippers give her added traction to pull ahead of the man in white, arriving on the roof before him and stepping aside for her sand to deliver the man to her vampire. In the few seconds they have to wait, she retrieves a bottle of Pride's blood and tosses it to Alucard, saying, "You should stop the bleeding quickly, Prince."

Alucard catches the bottle with a grin and quickly downs the contents, tossing the bottle back to her as his wounds heal, "Thanks for the pick-me-up, Princess."

At that point, Shadra's sand drags Tubalcain up to the roof by his ankles, then holds him in place as Alucard smirks, "I'm so happy. Happy to find that dreadful idiots like you still exist today. Millennium. The last battalion. So, it's that kampf gruppe of unhumans, led by the mad major. To this day, the world is still brimming with madness."

The sand moves away from the Dandy as Alucard adds, "Come, let's have a little song and dance. Alhambra. You'll be squealing like a pig."

"Squeal like a pig? I will? You still don't understand? So dense, Alucard. Have you gone completely soft in the head?!"

Tubalcain attacks Alucard after saying this. Shadra smiles and sits atop some debris, crystallizing the blood on the roof as she watches her Alucard and the Dandy fighting. She puts the resulting ruby at the center of her bodice, just under where the collar attaches to the neckline. Within seconds, she's listening to Alhambra's screams of pain as Alucard breaks his leg and fillets his arm before biting into him to get information from his blood. When Alhambra bursts into flames while Alucard is taking his blood, she readies a second bottle of Pride's blood in case he wants it when he reforms.

Both of them look up when they hear a helicopter overhead, smirking when they see Pip in the copilot's seat, holding a gun to the pilot's temple, "Alucard, sir! Shadra, ma'am!"

Alucard looks at Shadra, smiling genuinely when he sees the new ruby on her dress, knowing exactly whose blood she's keeping near her heart as he says, "What about the coffin?"

Shadra gives him the okay sign, "My shadows will bring it to wherever we stop to rest."

"Do 'urry up, we're short on time! 'urry up! Come on, what're you doing?!"

While Shadra boards the chopper, she hears Alucard saying, "Killing off our enemies, our allies, those we should protect, nations we should rule, even ourselves, but it's still not enough. Your lot and mine are truly incorrigible warmongers. Aren't we, Major?"

Even hearing this speech, the only thing Shadra can think of is how happy she is to be included in her vampire king's thoughts as Alucard boards the helicopter and they leave the Hotel Rio behind.

* * *

okay, this chapter is where we see Alucard and Shadra getting nearly to the non-platonic stage of their relationship. speaking in sync is a pretty good sign in any relationship. you guys also get to see one of my personal favorite powers of Shadra's, crystallization of certain liquids into gems, in this case: blood into rubies. can you guess the significance of where she places the rubies on her clothing?


	8. princess meets queen

fyi: i'm terrible at writting accents. any lines that i didn't take directly from the manga will be typed as normal English.

CHAPTER 7: THE PRINCESS MEETS THE QUEEN (AND WOLF CALLS TO WOLF)

When the trio finally find a place to set the chopper down, Alucard erases the pilot's memory of the incident, and they quickly find a motel in the town of St. Rose. Alucard calls Integra soon after, while Pip is out getting something to eat. Shadra stays with him and talks to her as well.

"Alucard?! Shadra?!"

"Yes."

"Where are you now?!"

"Some remote town called St. Rose or something, near Rio. We've completed our mission, our master. What they're up to is now engraved into our brains."

"Well done."

"Yes."

"Return straight away. I expect a formal report."

"It sounds like the Roundtable Council's turned up the heat."

"If only that was the whole story. It's a direct order from higher up."

"Higher up? Meaning?"

"From Her Majesty herself. She's called the council together."

"Hoho!! The Queen!!"

"You think this is a laughing matter?! You're mistaken. Escape and return home immediately!! Do not make her wait. Section XIII is moving as well. I have no desire to be outdone by them!!"

"Yahhh. By the way, Integra. How did you like the joy of war? Miss Director….Did it set you aboil? Were you able to see the dark red flames blazing?

"OH SHUT IT!! BLOODY FOOLS, HOW WOULD I KNOW THAT?! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT YOU GITS!!"

Integra slams the phone down after her last outburst, leaving the two of them laughing as Pip returns to the room with a bag of food from a local fast food place. Without a word, he tosses Shadra the container of French fries she asked for when he left, shuddering a little when she fills a dish with blood and uses it for a dipping sauce. Alucard laughs a bit at the human's reaction to his princess's eating habits.

Shadra finishes eating just as the door to their room is kicked open by Anderson, who then proceeds to have a short fist fight with Alucard as Shadra calmly drinks the remaining blood from the dish and the bottle she poured it from, not looking up until Anderson uses one of his bayonets to attach a church order to the wall, saying, "Aif ye go aboot thirteen kilometers til the noorth, there's ae Vatican airfield disguised as ae cropduster's. There's ae wee jet there wi' its engine a'ready warmed up. Ging on, away wi ye. It's a' yers, tak it and vanish….While ah can still control ma urge tae kill the lot o' ye."

Shadra has her shadows take the coffin to the place Anderson tells them about as they head out past him. As she walks by the priest, though, she whispers in his ear, "Thanks for the help. Now I might forgive you for stabbing me in Badrick."

Laughing at the dumbfounded look on Anderson's face, she catches up to Alucard, who wraps his arm around her waist with a smirk, "You're never going to let him forget Ireland, are you, Princess?"

"Not as long as he lives, Prince. I'm still quite upset that he not only impaled me, but beheaded you as well. If he _ever_ tries anything like that again, I'm making good on my threat at the museum."

Alucard laughs heartily at this, while Pip looks incredibly confused, making Shadra laugh as well.

On the plane ride home, Shadra watches Alucard sleep, noticing that he starts crying blood like she does when she's truly pained. Without a word, when he startles awake, she pulls him towards her and hugs him like he did when she had her nightmare. She just stands there in the aisle between the seats, holding him without a word for several minutes, until he starts to pull away. She lets him pull away, then bends down to be at the same eye level with him, gently wiping his blood tears away from his cheeks, crystallizing them into another ruby, this one attached to her bodice right over her heart.

When the plane lands, they move to rendezvous with Integra at Krauney House as quickly as possible. When they arrive, they find the council of twelve, the Queen, and several members of Iscariot waiting for them as well. Integra raises an eyebrow when she sees the rubies on both Shadra's dress and the cuffs of Alucard's favorite red coat. Alucard smiles as he looks around, "Truly splendid, everyone's here."

Shadra joins in when they add, speaking to Integra, "We have just returned….our master."

Integra rolls her eyes a little that Shadra is including herself, but plays along by saying, "You've done your duties well, my servants."

She directs the next part to Alucard alone, though, "You stand before the Queen. Remove your sunglasses."

Alucard does as he's told, then approaches the shadowed throne, Shadra a bit behind him, staying a respectful distance as he walks boldly past the guards and right up to the Queen, allowing her to touch his face as he smiles and holds a conversation with her. She tunes out what is said until she hears the Queen ask him, "Who is your lady friend, vampire?"

She blushes profusely and smiles happily when she hears Alucard answer quietly, "If my master will allow it, my chosen bride. Her name is Shadra Kage."

Her Majesty gestures for Shadra to come forward at this. Shadra allows the queen to touch her face as she did Alucard's, her eerie green eyes widening slightly when she's pulled closer and the queen whispers into her ear, "I'll speak to Integra about allowing the union, shadow princess."

Her voice is a mere thread of sound, only audible to the queen and Alucard, "How did you know, Your Majesty?"

"Think you I haven't heard Abadon's legend? I felt the brand on your neck."

Shadra's expression softens at this, whispering into the queen's mind, "Thank you, Sister. Only a shadow child would be able to hear Abadon's voice."

She smiles as she pulls away and goes to stand by Alucard's side as the queen speaks up so that the entire room can hear, "Deliver your report, vampire."

Shadra stands proudly beside her vampire as he tells the humans what he gleaned from Alhambra's blood, her left hand occasionally tapping the spade shaped ruby placed at hand level at the side of her skirt. The ruby is of course what remained of Alhambra after he was incinerated, its placement indicating that she regarded him as a mere tool, to be kept within arm's reach, thus being placed where she can touch the ruby easily without it being obvious. The placement of the other rubies are also significant to her, the blood of human soldiers sent in as cannon fodder placed on her shoes showing her contempt for their blind loyalty, while Alucard's blood is placed near her heart and throat, showing what she feels will always belong to the No Life King: her heart and her blood.

She's pulled from her thoughts as a young werewolf in a warrant officer's uniform appears, saying, "Tubalcain's blood showed me the vay here. Really…I guess he vas good for something…!!"

Pip and an Iscariot agent pull their guns just before the warrant officer says, "Vait. I'm just a messenger. I'm not here to fight you."

Integra, "Messenger? When did you…? Where did you…? Walter?!

Walter, "Our security was flawless. Nor are there any signs of break-in."

Shadra rolls her eyes at the warrant officer saying, "Save your breath. I'm everyvhere. And novhere.", causing the red head to mutter something along the lines of, "Cocky little pup…."

This earns her a small look of confusion from Alucard before the young werewolf continues, "Since eweryone from England und the Watican are gathered together here today…our Kommandant, Herr Major, has something very important to say. So please, sit back und listen."

The werewolf pauses for a moment then, his nose twitching a little before he turns to look at Shadra and whispers so that only the nonhumans in the room can hear him, "Hello there, half-breed."

Shadra rolls her eyes and says just as quietly, "I've probably been alive longer than you've been wolf, pup, so don't insult me. I stand beside my mate, child."

Alucard smiles at this, knowing werewolf terminology. Shadra basically just called the warrant officer a human and told him to back off.

Without acknowledging Shadra's words, the warrant officer sets up the video screen he brought and starts to try and tune it to the right channel for the major's transmission.

"Ahh? Vat's wrong, there's no signal."

"Vat are you doing? Hurry und stand Herr Brigadier General up against the vall."

"Varrant Officer Shrodinger, this isn't vorking at all."

"Major! Stop this! Stop, for God's sake…!"

"Hm, ahh. There's the image."

"Major! Please, save us! Sa… **Bang Bang Bang**"

"Sounds like you haf your hands full there, Major."

"It's troublesome having to deal with superiors who are cowards. But now I finally find relief. It feels good. It feels wery good."

As the warrant officer laughs, Alucard wraps an arm around Shadra's waist and says, "Hi there, Major."

"It's been a long time, Alucard. Being able to see you against the pinnacle of gladness."

Before the Major can mention anything about Alucard having his arm around Shadra, which he looks about to do, Integra speaks up, "So you're the enemy leader."

(I'm skipping the conversation up until this point.)

"But unfortunately for you, my enemy ist not you und yours. Keep your vords to yourself for a bit, Section XIII. My enemy ist Great Britain!! The Order of Protestant Knights!! Nein!! It's that man who looks so joyful standing there. Und the woman with him."

Everyone turns to look at Alucard and Shadra as they start to laugh, the sound almost completely psychotic. The laughter goes on for a couple minutes until they say together, "Fine, fine. We'll destroy you any number of times. You really are a vengeful brood. Hahahahah. A superb war declaration!"

"Ve'll overturn unsatisfactory results any number of times. Of course, ve are the most vengeful type there ist."

"Alucard. Shadra. Fire."

Shadra steps back and covers her ears as Alucard sticks his Caswell into the mouth of the warrant officer and pulls the trigger. While the others are distracted by the Major's next statement, and Alucard blocks the Major's view of Shadra and the young werewolf, no one sees her solidifying a shadow around the pup's neck before his head reforms, creating a black diamond dog collar on him as a joke (and a bit of insurance) before removing her blood ruby from her hip and putting it into his hand, whispering, "A gift for the Major."

She looks up when she hears Integra calling for her to destroy the screen, "Shadra, if you would."

Shadra retrieves her dagger from its sheathe with a smirk directed at the screen, saying, "Sayonara.", just before throwing it into the monitor, dead center.

Everyone turns to look at the Queen when she says, "Sir Hellsing. Alucard. This is an order. Bring them all down."

* * *

~Millennium HQ, approx. ten minutes later~

The Major and his companions walk into the war room to find a disgruntled Shrodinger waiting for them. The cause of the young werewolf's foul mood becomes obvious quite quickly, as he's sporting a glittering black dog collar with no apparent way of opening it. The warrant officer grumpily hands the Major a ruby shaped like the ace of spades, saying, "A gift from the red head, Herr Major. A ruby crystallized from the blood Tubalcain left at the Hotel Rio."

The Major takes the ruby with a laugh, "She has a wonderful sense of irony. Did you find out anything new about her?"

"Besides confirming what we already know, I found out that she has a strange mix of bloodlines: vampire, werewolf, two -possibly three- kinds of demon, and a dash of human. Also, she has a crown branded onto the right side of her neck, her wolf blood smells faintly like the Captain, she uses werewolf terms fluently, the Paladin won't come within five meters of her, and she claims Alucard as her mate. Oh, and she can create things using solid shadows at will."

The last is said with a grumble and tug on the collar.

* * *

well, now you know the significance of the ruby placement. you also got a hint about Shadra's origins near the end. the reason behind the collar will make itself known in later chapters.


	9. massacre on the eagle

CHAPTER 8: MASSACRE ON THE EAGLE

Shadra comes upon Seras in the dining room of Hellsing Manor a few nights later, watching her try to choke down human food. She shakes her head a bit before approaching her with a black bottle of blood in hand, this one marked with Gr. It's Greed's blood. She sets it down on the table next to the bowl of soup Seras is trying to eat, saying, "This will go down easier for you. It's one of my special bottles. Just remember, though, not all of the black bottles are safe. If you need them, depending on the situation, look for P, L, S, or Gr. The ones marked with E are only for dire emergencies, and the others are dangerous for a vampire to consume. I use W and Gl only on those I hunt."

Integra is watching Shadra's conversation with Seras, remembering what Her Majesty talked to her about before they left. Since Seras is Alucard's fledgling, Shadra is starting to take up a slightly maternal role for the younger vampire without actually realizing it. Integra's eyes widen slightly in surprise when Shadra is able to coax Seras into drinking from the black crystal bottle. She makes her presence known to the two of them once the bottle is emptied and given back to Shadra, "Prepare your gear and stand by, girls. Communication was lost with the HMS Eagle somewhere at sea near Wales. Likely due to Millennium."

Shadra smiles and nods as Seras says, "Right."

The two women find Alucard sleeping in his chair a few hours later, the area around him littered with blood packs. Shadra smiles a little at his somewhat peaceful expression as Walter comes up behind them, commenting on the area, "He's eaten his fill and now sleeps his fill. Almost like some 'savage beast.' No doubt he has sensed something. Something. The scent of conflict, or some such."

Alucard mumbles in his sleep, "Scent?", then grins through his dream.

He bolts awake a few moments later, startling Seras much to Walter's amusement, while Shadra simply continues to smile slightly as her vampire picks up his gun and they go together to where Integra is waiting for them.

(skipping the part in the British National Security Special Guidance Division Headquarters until the discussion on how to get the Hellsing agents into the Eagle.)

"How are we going to send those three into that maritime steel stronghold? A heavy warship?"

"Non. It would require too much time. And they will not let their captured ship remain idle indefinitely. A small high-speed boat."

"Non. There are anti-aircraft cannons and the CIWS cluster. I don't think it could stand up against a storm of bullets. An aircraft. Descent from directly overhead."

"Non. Against the onboard SAM. An overhead approach is beyond our means. Perhaps the use of an aircraft accompanied by copious amounts of decoy chaff."

"Non. Even if we fool the missiles, the 'magic bullets' remain."

Alucard and Shadra appear out of the shadows at this point, saying together, "To conclude, in the face of missiles and a hail of bullets, as well as the magic bullets, we have to find a way to get us onto the deck of an aircraft carrier at sea. Those are the rules."

Shadra stops speaking at this point, allowing Alucard to continue, "Not exactly a reasonable demand. No, wait. Perhaps there is a way. Only one type of plane would facilitate such recklessness."

Alucard looks at Shadra and adds, "But there's only room for one in the cockpit."

Shadra smiles up at him, "Surely there is room for a shadow…."

The couple shares a smile at this.

* * *

~over the Eagle, approx. one day later~

Alucard, piloting the newly acquired EXP 14L-E plane, with Shadra awaiting their landing inside his shadow, aims his plane in a nosedive at the deck of the Eagle, using the German national standard painted on the deck as a target, "Take heed. For if thou presumeth to flirt with spirits….thou shalt join them."

Shadra smiles, "Quoting a play, Prince? If the wolf aboard is who you're thinking of, perhaps her play should have a different ending."

As the plane is engulfed in flames and Alucard activates the control art restriction system, he answers, "Perhaps, Princess, but is that only because what we have planned reminds you of that desert village you demolished?"

"Partly. That, and I think the Major set her here as a sacrificial lamb. If we spare her, it would be like a slap in the face to that ugly little man."

"Vindictive, aren't you?"

"Yes."

Shadra rises up out of Alucard's shadow as he walks across the deck towards Rip Van Winkle, who is positively terrified, remembering the end of the play. The vampire soldiers attack the two of them while they are distracted by the werewolf, though Shadra's now signature glittering black sand keeps her from being harmed as she produces a handful of silver senbon. Despite throwing the senbon and hitting a target with each one, the couple is forced to fall back away from the werewolf. Alucard allows all of the ammo fired at him to hit, while Shadra's sand works as a shield. She watches with horrified black eyes as they start using hand grenades on her beloved No Life King, then they turn a happy red when he reforms. They both use their powers then to massacre the vampires, leaving only Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle alive. As Alucard approaches the terrified werewolf, Shadra looks around at the destruction.

The wreckage around them looks too much like the ruined village for her peace of mind, and she approaches behind Alucard just as he asks Rip, "Now!! What will you do?! What will you do, Rip Van Winkle?!"

Before Rip can wipe the tears from her eyes and answer, Shadra lays her hand on Alucard's shoulder, saying quietly, "It's too much like back then, Prince. Let's spare this Caspar her date with Zamiel. She looks too much like that little girl I left back home…."

Rip looks confused by what Shadra is saying, her nose twitching a little as she whispers to the red head, "Why do you smell like the Captain?"

Shadra smiles a little, "He's a captain now, is he? It truly has been a while. I guess you could say I am wolf because I am vampire. It's a rather embarrassing tale, actually, so I'll leave it at that."

Alucard's expression softens when he sees the look in Shadra's eyes as they slowly turn from red to their natural eerie green, though the bottom edges are starting to turn red with welling tears, "Fine, Princess. We'll spare the wolf."

Shadra immediately reaches up on her ruby encrusted toes and kisses him on the cheek, before turning to Rip and saying, "I do have a condition, though."

Before the wolf can ask what it is, Shadra snaps her fingers, and a collar like the one she put on the warrant officer solidifies around Rip's neck, "This. You'll have to be placed with one of my sisters for a while."

As she's finishes saying this, Shadra's nose twitches a little, and she mutters something about cocky pups trying to be sneaky. They all turn to see Shrodinger on the ruined deck, holding up a monitor with the Major on it. The Major seems a bit perturbed to see that Rip is not only still alive, but wearing a collar made by Shadra without even seeming upset about it like Shrodinger was, but he goes into his speech anyway, "You've done vell, Lieutenant. The operation ist a success. A total one. However many stones are thrown into the vater's surface, however much a shadow ist tread upon, neither the surface nor the shadow vanish. That ist how such things vork. It's the 'River of Death.' In it, life, death, everything ist a hoax. Immortality, invincibility, unbeatableness, ultimate strength, all utterly absurd. But ve vill overthrow him."

Before the man behind the Major can push the button to incinerate the wolf, Shadra steps right up to Shrodinger and lifts him by the back of the collar she put on him, looking right at the monitor as she says, "The collars are synced with each other, Major. What happens to the woman will happen to the pup. I'd advise you to restrain your comrade and allow her to leave unscathed or I might just take your messenger as well. We're removing Rip Van Winkle from this war completely."

After saying this, she leans in so that all the Major sees through the monitor is a shot of her dress, and kisses Shrodinger on his forehead with a whispered, "Tell the Captain that his pups have grown. It wasn't exactly intentional, but my sisters and I are wolf because of him."

Of course, her whispering doesn't register with the Major's audio equipment, but he orders the man behind him, the Doctor, to stop entering the command to fry Rip Van Winkle. Shadra sets the warrant officer down on his feet almost gently, saying to the Major, "Better say your goodbyes, Major. My shadows will transport Miss Rip to her temporary home now."

She then steps aside so that the Major and the others in the room can see Rip being engulfed by the shadows on the deck. There are various voices saying goodbye in German coming from the monitor, Shrodinger adding, "Ciao. Rip Van."

Rip's musket is left behind as the shadows swallow her up and sink back to the deck. Shadra then walks back over to the now laughing Alucard, hearing the Major telling them to watch from the ship as he makes his next move.

* * *

the first scene is altered from the original manga. in place of Integra cutting her finger and having Seras clean it up, Shadra takes on the mother role. a bit more about Shadra's childhood crops up as well, and can you say daughter number two with the addition of Rip to the Hellsing side? the No Life King and his bride are gonna have one f***ed up family by the end of this. ^.^


End file.
